Councilmember Lisa Herbold (District 1, West Seattle), Chair of the Council’s Civil Rights, Utilities, Economic Development and Arts Committee, issued the following statement in response to a letter she received from the Mayor’s Director of Operations to tell her that a bonus will not be given to City Light CEO Larry Weis:
“On July 6th I wrote a letter to Mayor Murray regarding Seattle City Light CEO Larry Weis’ performance pay criteria and asked for the previously established expectations for performance pay. The performance pay criteria are important because of State Attorney General’s guidance in setting objective criteria which measures performance that exceeds the expectations of the job.
“I had previously raised concerns about this pay during the appointment of Larry Weis, but ultimately voted to appoint Weis despite those concerns because the Council did not have the authority to prohibit the bonus without first repealing a law a previous Council approved.
“Today the Mayor replied to my letter, stating that CEO Weis and he are still in conversations regarding the criteria for future performance pay. I was relieved to learn that due to expectations having not yet been codified, CEO Weis would not receive performance pay for 2016.
“I don’t know if my asking whether or not there was a performance criteria is why the Mayor ultimately decided that performance pay was not merited. But if so, it goes to show that, when asked, good questions can save taxpayers money.”